Officials discuss costs of train fire

The first bills for the CSX tunnel fire began rolling in yesterday, with city officials tallying $1.3 million in expenses - the bulk of which the railroad company has agreed to pay.

CSX had offered days ago, before the last burning car was pulled from the tunnel under Howard Street, to pay overtime costs for Baltimore firefighters, police officers, health workers and employees from the Department of Public Works.

Company officials have stressed that willingness to pay is not an acknowledgment of responsibility.

The $1.3 million does not include the costs associated with a water main break near the accident site. City officials have said the break occurred after the derailment, likely because of intense heat in the tunnel. A key question is whether the fire burst the water main or if the line was faulty and contributed to the derailment.

Tony White, a spokesman for Mayor Martin O'Malley, said that much of the $1.3 million bill will be for overtime costs. He said officials have yet to determine that amount precisely.

The total tab for the derailment is likely to reach millions of dollars, much of it paid to private companies hired by CSX for the cleanup of hazardous chemicals.

Responsibility for those expenses is a long way from being determined, said Thurman W. Zollicoffer Jr., the city's top attorney.

He and other city officials met with CSX yesterday morning to discuss the overtime issue and other matters.

The meeting was essentially a chance for the two groups to communicate with each other for the first time since the tunnel fire was extinguished and downtown was reopened to east-west traffic, he said.

"It was really just a very, very preliminary status meeting of how to proceed," he said. "It was very cordial, and we had a very positive exchange of information."

Zollicoffer said the two sides agreed not to discuss responsibility for the derailment and fire, which occurred Wednesday and shut much of Baltimore's main business district for days. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

"We restricted the conversation to that which we both can agree on at this point," Zollicoffer said.

Once both sides agree on a figure, "we'll turn a check over to them within 24 hours," said Gould. "This is simply something we think is the right thing to do."

Gould said 25 damage claims have been filed by city businesses that lost money because of flooding, street closings and traffic tie-ups, but he declined to disclose the amounts of the claims.

The company worked yesterday to get train traffic back to normal through the tunnel. Typically, more than 30 trains use those tracks each day.

Yesterday, about 13 were routed there, Gould said, and by Friday the number should be up to 22.

The new tracks are temporary, and CSX will replace them during the next two weeks with permanent track. Until then, no hazardous materials will be transported through the tunnel, Gould said.

A team of eight investigators from the NTSB continued to survey the train cars for scrapes, broken parts or other clues that might help reveal what happened. They also scrutinized a waist-high pile of 700 feet of track segments to determine which pieces should be sent to Washington for metallurgical tests. "It was a fairly routine day," said NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway. "Nothing has jumped out at them so far."

A hazardous-materials expert will begin looking at the cars this morning, he said.